Fluor reaches 2 million safe work hours

On Monday, Jan. 25, 2016 Fluor-BWXT workers reached two million safe work hours on the decontamination and decommissioning project at the U.S. Dept. of Energy Portsmouth Site.

Safe work hours are defined as hours without a lost-time accident.

The 1,900 workers and subcontractors on the DOE reservation work in a challenging and ever-changing environment that includes radiological, chemical and industrial hazards.

In a message to employees, Fluor-BWXT Site Project Director Dennis Carr praised workers for maintaining a focus on safety.

“We are also paying greater attention and being more aware as we move across the aging site and perform routine tasks,” Carr said. “More importantly it means our people are carrying out physical tasks like removing process gas equipment, shipping waste, performing maintenance and doing site prep for the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility – all work that involves heavy equipment and continuing to make safety the priority.”

The two million safe work hour run began in August 2015. Fluor-BWXT is the primary cleanup contractor for the DOE at the site.

The project involves more than 300 Cold War-era buildings and systems formerly used to enrich uranium, originally for the Dept. of Defense and later for the nuclear fuel industry.